jmccartie

The Things Tourists Say

Yes, I enjoy climbing small little rocks.  No, I do not use a rope.  No, it is actually far less dangerous that roped climbing.  Yes, I've climbed with a rope.  No, I have not climbed anything on El Cap.  No, it is not my life's dream to do The Nose.  This thing on my back?  It's a big foam pad.  Just in case I fall asleep and fall backwards.  I have narcolepsy.

Ah, tourists - when will you learn? The answer? Never.

And that's ok. Honest. After years of heading up the Tramway in Palm Springs with a crashpad on my back, I'm used to the weird questions and even weirder looks from tourists.

Tourist: "Is that a massage table?"
Me : "Yes, yes it is. My buddy and I like to head up the mountain, hike deep into the woods, and give each other nature massages. They're really quite great - you should try it."

(Of course, the louder and more excited you get when saying this, the more looks you get from the Tram passengers)

And my recent trip to Yosemite was no different. This was my 4th trip to Yosemite this year (and my 4th ever).  The other three trips were made in the off-season and -- in the spring -- Yosemite seemed to be filled more with climbers and adventurists than 30-person families with bike racks, campers, and 4-burner behemoth grills.  In the off-season, it seemed so common to see a crashpad or a rack full of cams that I don't think I ever got a tourist question.  But in the summer-time, the bouldering becomes slippery and those in-the-know seem to avoid the Valley and head for Tahoe.

Along with the summer-time hordes comes the uninitiated -- and like I said, it doesn't bother me anymore.  I get a pretty good chuckle -- especially hearing parents explaining my sport to their kids.

One lovely afternoon, my friend Dave informed me he'd seen a great looking boulder just off the road that connects Curry Village to the Happy Isles shuttle stop.  We hopped on our bikes and cruised over.  Despite a bit of chalk on a short finger crack, the rest of the boulder was dirty.  We set to work with my brushes, shaving off the dead moss and removing layers of dirt and pine needles.  We made quick work of the left and right aretes.  Dave then saw another line just to the right of the left arete.  Dave and I both spent 30 minutes or so trying to work out the moves.

The boulder is road-side and across from a very popular hiking trail, so there were plenty of tourists checking out our progress as they walked by.  Most were quiet, but my two favorite comments were:

1. Son: "Look dad!  Look at the rock climbers!"
   Dad: "Yeah, son -- they're practicing their rock climbing." (No, sir!  This is rock climbing... my goal is not to get strong for aid climbing [please note the subtle climbing humor here])


2. After I took a good fall after turning the lip, a lady called out: "Good thing this isn't Half Dome - you'd be dead! Haha" To this I simply had no reply.  Normally (especially hours later), I would have some fantastically sarcastic retort to a comment like this, but I still have nothing.  I just hope people aren't soloing v4's heading up the cables.  (I've heard the 1,000 steps are hard, but I don't think they're v4).  No.  See?  Even that isn't a good retort.  I'll work on it and get back to you with something funnier.

I must give a tip o' the hat to another friend, Jake, who came across us as he was coming back from Half Dome.  "Are you guys bouldering?" Jake, I applaud you.  Yes, we are bouldering.  It's hard.  And it's fun.  Carry on.

But my favorite moment of the week came on our 2nd day of our trip.  I'd spotted a great looking boulder only a few hundred yards from our campsite.  I'd attempted some headlamp climbing, but despite chalk on a few start holds, the rest of the climb was dirty and untouched.  So the next morning, I loaded up my backpack with a few pieces of gear and a short 30m rope.  I planned to head to the boulder, throw a rope over the top and rappel onto the climb to clean it.

I left Upper Pines Campground and joined the same trail mentioned earlier, heading towards Happy Isles.  I crossed the road and fell into the flow of foot traffic, just in front of a girl and her mom.

Girl: "Look mommy - he's got a big rope!" (I smiled, knowing the 30m rope was half the standard length, but enjoying the little girl's enthusiasm and awe)
Mommy: "Yes, dear.  It looks like he's going rock climbing."

Having a daughter myself, my mind turned to my not-too-distant-future of teaching my daughter the "ropes" of rock climbing.  I smiled and continued walking just in front of them.  As I neared the boulder just off the trail to my right, the girl made a keen observation:

Girl: "Look mommy - I think he's going to go climb that rock."
Mommy: "No, dear.  I'm sure he's going to go climb something much bigger."

With almost a hint of spite towards the older woman, I smiled big as I stripped off my pack, and began setting up the rope.  I smiled at the girl as she walked by as if to say: "See?  Your imagination wins!  And frankly my dear, you don't need to run out 30 pitches on El Cap to have a good time." I hope I run into that little girl again -- maybe next time on a 30-foot-long low-ball traverse.

The rest of my afternoon was spent hanging on a gri gri, roasting in the sun, and filling my shoes with brushed-off dirt and gray lichen.  The occasional tourist would stop along the path and offer me an inquisitive glance.  I was far enough away to not hear any of the comments, but I'm sure the sight of a guy hanging off a small boulder -- with a toothbrush in one hand and a toilet brush in another -- was something they'd not seen before.

"Look mommy - he's scrubbing the rock with a toilet brush."
"No dear, I'm sure he's just practicing for his janitorial job in Curry Village."

Epilogue: enjoy this forum post from WestCoastBouldering.com about the dumbest crashpad question we've ever gotten from a tourist.

Bishop - March 2009

Just got back from a week climbing in Bishop.  It was by far the best climbing trip I've ever taken.  Aside from getting so much time on the rock (never done a climbing trip longer than 3 days before), I ticked some amazing problems that had been on my project list for a long time.

First, some pictures...

Finishing up "King Tut" (v3)

Ripped a flapper on "Seven Spanish Angels" (v6)

Grabbing the pinch on "Seven Spanish Angels" (v6)

My kiddo kickin it in the Ice Caves

Half way up "The Hunk" (v2R)

Topping out "The Hunk" (v2R)

Sitting atop my proudest send - High Plains Drifter (v7)

And here are some videos of the climbs I did.  I didn't manage to take any video on this trip -- I wanted to focus on enjoying the climbs without the hassle of setting up a video camera.  But these videos of other climbers should suffice.

Seven Spanish Angels
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-nQb8MlMi8[/youtube]

Green Wall Center
[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/2757179[/vimeo]

Serengeti
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXTXEMWqBa8[/youtube]

High Plains Drifter
[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/1313657[/vimeo]

Pure - a mini review

I'm at work and need to catch up on email, so here's my quick and dirty review of "Pure" -- a climbing flick from Chuck Fryberger.  I've not yet read some other reviews I know are out there, so hopefully my opinions here are ... pure.

The Good

• Great footage -- the climbs were on stage and they performed well


• Unique angles -- obviously, lots of time spent getting everything framed well, and yes, I did notice a lot of depth to the shots (foreground and background blurred ... very pretty)


• Not afraid to experiment -- lots of the action was placed in the upper thirds of the shot.  I haven't seen a lot of this recently, and it's nice to see someone thinking ahead.  It's a risky thing to do, because you can sometimes lose your subject off the screen if they do something big and unexpected.


• Despite the over-use of what I'm sure is a $200 Final Cut video filter, whatever the video filter was, it looked great.  Darkened corners with some de-saturated colors gave it a clean look overall.

The Bad

• As stated before in a tweet, the computerized Mac voice was annoying.


• There was little to no story line


• The Rocklands footage was very blown out


• The title graphics for each climb were very hard to read.  The broken-up font made some of the grades completely illegible.


• There was more footage of Fred Nicole walking around with his crash pad than there was of him actually climbing


• The emotional arc of the film went flat.  It started out very high energy, came down in the middle, then...stayed at 50% until the end.  I actually started getting sleepy during the Switzerland segment.


• The film was basically all about Nalle Hukkataival.


• ...and suddenly?  The film was over.  A very abrupt ending.

The Bottom Line

Overall, what the film lacked in content, it made up for in sheen.  It was one of the prettiest climbing films of late and I certainly respect the filmmaker's eye for getting the good shot.  As stated previously, the film spent far too much time on a single climber and had a very abrupt ending.  I would have liked to see some other climbers, and I would have liked a "finale" of sorts.  If the film had really completed an arc and brought back the engergy level ... or if there was a proper ending to the film -- I'd be able to give it a better review.  Minus those two biggies?  I'll give it a B-.

...can't wait for the next one.

"Mirando" - climbing film from Bishop

I wrapped up the editing of my new climbing film, Mirando.  Check it out:

http://www.fractionfilm.com/2009/02/mirando/

Trip to Bishop

Friday

Took Friday off and drove out to Bishop.  Met some great people and managed to get a lot of good looking video of some hard climbs.

I showed up Friday and met up with Brian Hedrick and Mark Heal.  Mark worked on "Stained Glass" (v10) for awhile before the rock tore up his fingertips.  Nearby, Giovanni "G" Traversi made an incredible send of "Haroun and the Sea of Stories" (v12).  Got that one on video.  Daniel Woods, Ethan Pringle and Doug Munsch showed up just before the send.  Afterwards, the whole group was led by Charlie Barrett across the valley to "Xavier's Roof" (v12).

The whole group took shots at it, but the sends went to Daniel and Brian.  After that, we cruised down to "Zen Flutes" -- a v10 face with a long dyno finish.  I worked on a v7 around the corner.  (when I find my guidebook, I'll have a name for the thing, but since I didn't complete it, no rush.)

The crew finished the day on "Solitaire" (v8).  The problem starts on a low sloping rail on a angled wall, followed by a long move to another sloping rail, then a full dyno to a sharp edge over the top.  Once again, the send train rolled in and everyone who tried it, made it up.

Brian and Mark went off to Vons for camp food while G, myself, Daniel, Ethan, and Doug grabbed burgers at Whiskey Creek.  G got his own hotel room (lame) and the other 4 of us split a room at a local motel.

Saturday

Woke up long before everyone else, and laid in bed rifling through work emails and catching up on Twitter and my RSS feeds.  We got out to the Milks around 10am, met up with Emanuel Moosburger and his pal David from Austria.  The 8-man crew tromped out to Secrets of the Beehive -- a ~30ft tall v7 with a crux finish.  Ethan made the first send and made it look easy.  Mark came up second, followed by Brian, then Daniel.  I took a few go's at it, but couldn't make it past a v5/v6 move at the bottom. Doug made it up "Queen Sweet Nectar" (v9) from the 2nd move on -- he swears he'll get it from the start next time.

Ethan and Brian made a attempts on The Swarm (v14).  Doug and I did a little v6 around to the right that was fun.  Brian said he felt good on The Swarm and thinks he can get it this year.

The session was capped off by Ethan's ascent of "Flight of the Bumblebee" -- v8/v9, maybe 35ft+ with a bad landing.  His first go, he got up the left-to-right flake, but downclimbed before moving over the bulge.  He sent on his second go -- great footage to come.

We loaded up the cars and headed back towards Grandpa Peabody where we ran into Matt Birch, Wills Young, and Lisa Rands.  Matt was working on "Indirection" -- a cool line that starts at "Go Granny Go" and moves left to join "Thunderbird" (need to double-check my facts on that finish).  Daniel climbed up the backside of Grandpa so he could throw a rope on the "Rasta Man" project.

I played around a bit on "Go Granny Go", then ran up to "Mandala" where Ethan was working on the v14 sit and Brian was working the v12 stand.  I got two good angles of Brian -- his second go, he sent. As the sun went down, the pads got stacked below Evilution.  Canadian Jeremy Smith made two very excellent attempts at pulling over the lip, but couldn't hang on.  Next to this show, Matt and Daniel worked on "Rasta Man" together.  Just before the headlamps turned off, Daniel made a final go -- sticking the long throw to the terrible pinch, but unable to stick the next move.

Saturday night was pizza, then back to the motel for some lame telvision and a few beers.

Sunday

We didn't have a full day, so we decided we'd get up early and push out.  But when Doug's alarm went off, the room stayed quiet.  We got out there around 10am.  Daniel took a few more go's at "Rasta Man", Doug worked on "Stained Glass", and I got totally shut down on two easy climbs I'd planned to do... my body just refused to hang on to anything.

I finished my trip shooting video of Lisa Rands attempting "Haroun...".  Wills found a knob to hang some pads off the boulder opposing the climb -- without them you'd fly right into the boulder if you're feet popped.  Lisa made three good go's while I was there.  She made it through the middle crux, but could not hang on to the finish.

I left around 12:45p and managed to drive straight through to Oakland -- 6 hours.  Not bad.

Video to come...

Mission Cliffs Climbing Competition

Long story short: on my last trip to San Francisco for work, I brought my climbing shoes and entered a friendly little climbing competition.  I entered the Men's Intermediate division (v3-v5, middle of three divisions).  I placed 22 of 69 people.  Not bad for my first-ever comp, and being a little out of shape.

But here's the weird part.  If I had instead chosen to enter the Men's Advanced, my total score of 19,280 would have put me in 17th place in that division.  Huh?  Shouldn't they average out the scores and then divide?

I don't get it.

That'll teach me to be an underachiever.  Yes, I should be in the Men's Advanced group.  Yes, I can fly a plane.  Yes, I can perform open heart surgery.

Desert, Stars, and the TSA

We had big plans last weekend of taking a group of our friends out to Joshua Tree.  Having spent so much time out there the last two years rock climbing and camping, I figured our friends would enjoy the quiet solitude, campfire, and starry nights.  I guess I was wrong.

Although we locked down the date over 4 months ago, our small circle of friends all lead very busy lives.  Like clockwork, we got our first call Tuesday night -- the wife was sick and they were staying home.  We got our second call soon afterwards -- there was some volunteer work that randomly planned some training this weekend.  And with 4 of the 10 people cancelling, the others decided it would be no fun as a partial group.

Frankly?  I couldn't care less!  I've spent more than my fair share of nights alone in Joshua Tree, staring into a fire and enjoying the alone time...  of course, I was very excited to share the beauty of this place with our friends, but getting to spend the weekend alone with my wife was a perfectly acceptable replacement.  

Friday was spent simply walking around the park, enjoying the "nature loops" setup by the park service.  Every 20ft or so, a new sign would point out plants and animals and give you some background on the area you're in.  I always hated History class, but there's something different about actually seeing history.  Seeing relics of the past (including a handful of pictographs), reminded me of my time growing up in Northern Virginia -- a place littered with hands-on American History.  We finished the day doing a 90ft climb to the top of a rock to watch the sunset.  Afterwards, we drove into town to find the best in small-town dining: Applebee's.

Saturday was full of bouldering.  My good friend (and very good climber) Aron joined us for the day.  My wife is a great encourager and she enjoys watching us climb.  (I'll spare you the rest of the details as I can see my blog starting to become dreadfully unbalanced with climbing posts).  The day was capped off with a big campfire, some roasted chicken breasts, a big bottle of Fat Tire, and a great chat with my lady-friend.

We climbed a bit more Sunday morning before heading back to LA.  Once home, my wife left for her mother's as I prepared for a week-long work trip to San Francisco.  Although my trip was a productive one, there's something jarring to the soul when you experience such a drastic change in mindsets.  One day you're sitting beside a fire, bundled up in a big poofy coat and beanie, staring at a sky lit up like a Christmas tree ... the next, you're dealing with cab lines, TSA, and expense reports.  I guess that's why we take pictures.

Tram Cleanup

Robert Miramontes (author of the Bouldering Guide to Joshua Tree) put together a cleanup day this past weekend at the Tram.

40+ folks showed up to "climb&clean."  The Miramontes' (Rob and wife Christina) passed out trashbags and even gave everyone a raffle ticket.  A few local climbing companies donated gear for the raffle.  I went up early Saturday AM with wife and baby.  This was Ava's first trip up the mountain, and she did great.

I managed to tick 2 of the 3 climbs I wanted to do:  "Like A Virgin", and "Standing on the Head of the Dragon."  (the 3rd is "Methane", but it was too hot to work on this problem).  Part of the "cleanup kit" included rubber gloves to cleanup...anything that we found that we didn't want to touch.  I decided instead to use the gloves as part of a photo shoot in homage to "Like A Virgin."

(please forgive the crude inuendo)

20 Point Traverse

Cruised down south to hang with the in-laws this past weekend.  Spent most of our time driving from grandparent to grandparent so they could all see the baby.  Now that all 7 great-grandparents and both sets of grandparents have seen her, hopefully next week's trip will be a little more relaxing.

Despite the hectic schedule, I managed to find time for climbing.  Since it's so freakin' hot, the only option was to wake up at 5:30am and get to the boulders before it got too hot.

I usually hate climbing at Santee -- I'm not a big fan of dime-edged feet and relying solely on the quality and stiffness of your shoes.  However, my buddy Jon took me to a new boulder I'd never climbed on: the "20 Point Boulder."  It had a few very unique and gymnastic climbs -- very rare for the area.  I ticked one v4 and began working on a traverse that a friend had told us was a v2.

My only guess is that the problem lost a foothold somewhere during a recent fire, because that climb was not a v2.  By the time I figured out the sequence, the sun was roasting the rock and I failed to finish.  Unfortunately, I then spent the rest of the day thinking about the climb...which meant another early morning trip to Santee.  I figured out some new beta and sent early Sunday morning.

20-Point Traverse.  V4.

Home Gym

With the move to our new apartment, we're now in a weird location -- between 2 climbing gyms, and neither of them near work, home, or in-between.  Add to that the fact that my shoulder injury has had me side-lined for almost 2 months and I'm one weak climber of late.

I went out last weekend to the Tram and to Black Mtn and felt heavy and week.  V3's were hard, and that made me sad.  So I broke down and decided to do some working out at home.

Behold!  My awesome home gym!!